Gardenia - A woman wants to forget

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Movie
German title Gardenia - A woman wants to forget
Original title The Blue Gardenia
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 88 minutes
Rod
Director Fritz Lang
script Charles Hoffman ,
Vera Caspary (Story)
production Alex Gottlieb
music Raoul Kraushaar
camera Nicholas Musuraca
cut Edward Mann
occupation

Gardenia - A woman wants to forget (Original title: The Blue Gardenia ) is in black and white twisted American film noir of Fritz Lang from 1953 on a story by Vera Caspary .

action

The operator Norah Larkin receives a letter from her fiancé in Korea on her birthday, in which he declares the relationship over. In order to forget her grief, she accepts a telephone invitation from the painter Harry Prebble, who is notorious as a womanizer, which was actually intended for her cheerful roommate and colleague Crystal. After dinner together at the Blue Gardenia Restaurant, Prebble brings the heavily drunk Norah home. When he gets intrusive there, Norah hits him with a fireplace hook and faints. After she has come to, she leaves the apartment without looking around. The next morning the hungover Norah can no longer remember the events of the previous night until she reads in the newspaper that Harry Prebble was found dead in his apartment. The shock brings her memory back and Norah believes she murdered Prebble.

The reporter Casey Mayo publishes an open letter to the unknown murderer in his newspaper with the offer to help her if she gives him her exclusive story. Norah meets with Mayo and tells him about her experiences, but claims that she is just the perpetrator's friend and disappears again. After she confesses the truth to Crystal in her desperation, she arranges a second meeting with Mayo. When Norah confesses that she is the culprit herself, the police, notified by the innkeeper, appear and arrest her.

Mayo is no longer convinced of Norah's guilt and has fallen in love with her. Together with the police officer Sam Haynes, he goes on a search for the truth. They eventually find out that Prebble had a pregnant girlfriend. After attempting suicide, she confesses to having come to Prebble's apartment that night after Norah had already fled. When she realized there that Prebble would not marry her and that another woman had obviously just been with him, she killed him.

background

Gardenia - A Woman Wants to Forget was released in US cinemas on March 28, 1953. In Germany it was released in cinemas on November 20, 1953.

Nat King Cole plays himself in the film and sings the song Blue Gardenia (text and music: Bob Russell and Lester Lee , arrangement: Nelson Riddle ).

synchronization

The synchronization was produced in Berlin in 1953.

role actor Voice actor
Norah Larkin Anne Baxter Tilly Lauenstein
Casey Mayo Richard Conte Paul Edwin Roth
Crystal Carpenter Ann Sothern Alice Treff
Harry Prebble Raymond Burr Ernst Wilhelm Borchert
Sally Ellis Jeff Donnell ?
Al Richard Erdman Klaus Schwarzkopf
Sam Haynes George Reeves Eduard Wandrey
Rose Miller Ruth Storey ?
Homer Ray Walker ?

Reviews

"A psychogram that depicts the dependency of women in patriarchal social structures in a mixture of crime melodrama and film noir in a sophisticated lighting design and with good actors."

"A somewhat disappointing film for such great talents as Lang and Musuraca."

- Michael L. Stephens, Film Noir: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to Movies, Terms and Persons

"With impressive pictures, director Fritz Lang tells a typical film noir, in which a woman has to prove her innocence and lives through hell on earth."

“Fritz Lang's direction is as innovative as ever, Anne Baxter brings her character to life, and the casting of the supporting roles is particularly noticeable - Richard Conte and Ann Sothern are outstanding. Unfortunately, the film suffers considerably at its end, which was clearly imposed on the director [...] by the studio and is completely untrustworthy. "

- Der-Film-noir.de

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 0-87951-479-5 , pp. 37-38.
  2. a b Gardenia - A woman wants to forget. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 24, 2017 .  .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  3. a b Gardenia - A woman wants to forget . In: Synchrondatenbank , accessed on May 13, 2020.
  4. Gardenia - A woman wants to forget (1953). In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on May 13, 2020 .
  5. "A somewhat disappointing film for talents as great as Lang and Musuraca" Michael L. Stephens: Film Noir: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Reference to Movies, Terms and Persons. McFarland & Co, Jefferson (NC) 1995, pp. 49-50.
  6. Gardenia - A woman wants to forget. In: prisma.de. prisma-Verlag , accessed on September 24, 2017 .
  7. Gardenia - A woman wants to forget . In: Der-Film-noir.de , accessed on May 13, 2020.